April 1, 2008
Would John McCain ask the British to man a “Basra surge”?
Of all the presidential candidates, John McCain certainly has the biggest differences with Gordon Brown over how to handle Basra. Over at the Spectator Coffee House, James Forsyth has picked up some “straight talk” on British efforts to bring order to Iraq’s second biggest city. McCain says the British failed to counter the Iranians as they “moved into Southern Iraq”. “These are the penalties we continue to pay for the very bad mishandling of the war for nearly four years while they became solidly entrenched,” he added.
This reminded me of some of McCain’s more explicit criticisms of the British withdrawal plans. In February, he told reporters that he “did not think it was a good idea” for the British to draw down troops last year.
He softened the blow at the time with some warm remarks about the British commitment. (”I understand the British domestic situation and I very much appreciate the service and sacrifice the British military made in Iraq…Obviously we’d have liked to see them stay longer but the enormous contribution they made in Iraq and Afghanistan I have to just be grateful for.”)
But I expect this would have given little comfort to British officials wary of his ambitions in Iraq should he be elected president. Would McCain request that the British take part in a Basra “surge”? And would he embarrass Gordon Brown by sending US troops to Basra if the prime minister said no?
The British government’s problems on Iraq are two-fold: first, they lied repeatedly about the reasons for the war, and then did next to nothing to prepare the population for the conflict, its costs and consequences. Secondly, because the UK’s cities are fizzing hot pots of islamic radicalism, the government has downplayed the role of the forces and tried at every opportunity to hide them in bases to keep casualty figures down.
If the US and Canada had behaved this way in WWII, the equivalent would have been placing the majority of troops in a giant base somewhere near Brighton, telling North Americans to not worry and go out and get pissed and laid rather than buy war bonds.
Posted by: Bob Macdonald | April 1st, 2008 at 1:41 pm | Report this comment